Friday, October 14, 2011

竹とんぼ Take-Tonbo: Helicopter Whirligig Toy

At the 100 yen shop (dollar store) in Japan, you can find lots of simple traditional wooden toys. These are some I got the other day. "Take", ("ta" rhymes with "ma" and "ke" rhymes with "may") means bamboo and "Tonbo" means dragonfly. The "bamboo dragonfly" toy was originally from China, and has been a popular toy in Japan for a long time. I've seen these whirligig toys in the states, too. There were two in the package. First was the simple traditional one, powered by spinning the shaft between your palms. The other used a simple string wound around a shaft. Place the propeller on top, pull the string and it goes flying off by itself.